The use of network-based communications such as those involving the Internet have grown exponentially in recent times for a variety of purposes, and has resulted in increased data traffic over telecommunications networks and at particular network-based communications nodes. The development of the Internet has made broad-based individual home and business access by web-based implementations readily available, with rapidly increasing numbers of services available via the Internet. Applications related to the Internet involve commercial applications, education, research, news dissemination and recreation.
Web servers, email (electronic mail) servers, network access systems, network access appliances, communications data paths and data sources have also grown in number and technological ability in order to meet the growing needs of network users and consumers. Furthermore, the cost of equipment used for Internet access, such as computers, modems and network routers has dramatically reduced as manufacturing technologies improve. These reductions in cost have been accompanied by a dramatic increase in speed and functionality, making Internet access easier, faster and more reliable. These reductions have facilitated the growth of home and business use of the Internet. As network communications increase, the need for a greater number of network resources (e.g., servers) has also grown.
One particular aspect of internet service is related to internet telephony service. Internet telephony generally involves the transfer of voice data over internet communications links in data packets. Internet telephony access appliances, typically internet protocol (IP) telephones or conversion devices that change IP telephony data into conventional telephony data (e.g., non-packetized data) that is subsequently sent to a conventional (non-IP) telephone. In providing Internet telephony, it is important that data being streamed is not interrupted and thus that any server providing data transfer capabilities can handle the amount of traffic that it is being subjected to. Signaling portions of Internet telephony communications, such as those involved in the establishment of a telephone communications connection, are important in facilitating uninterrupted connection.
Many network providers implement multiple sources for user access to a web page (or multiple web pages in the context of a web site), to an email server or to data for downloading or other purposes. One aspect of network-based communications and the provision of information on the network involves web hosting, where multiple users (sometimes, thousands or more) can access a particular web site and any related content otherwise available at that web site. Another aspect of network-based communications that has come under particular demand involves the delivery of data such as software or purchased media such as music. Where the delivery of such data is involved, there are often many sources available to provide the data and many communications data paths over which the data can be delivered. For example, where a host source provides software for downloading, that source often makes the downloading available from a variety of sources, and often requests that a user downloading the data designate a source. In these applications, user demands related to the sheer number of users accessing a particular web site and/or to the download of information relating to data provided by a particular web site can be significant, particularly as the number of users having network access grow and as such network-based service is more significantly relied upon.
Many Internet applications work with a client/server model. The client sends a request, and the server answers this request. Examples of client programs are web browsers; mailers, instant messaging applications and internet telephones, as discussed above. Three pieces of information that typically need to reach a server are the transport protocol (e.g., TCP, UDP), the IP address and the port. It is possible to manually configure this information in the client, but doing this can limit the scalability and reliability of the service.
In many applications, a domain name is mapped to a particular list of IP addresses; where one address fails, the domain name server (DNS) uses another IP address in the list. Generally, the DNS must ensure that any alternate IP address meets the needs of a particular request. That is, where a particular service is requested, any re-routing of a domain name to another server must involve a process that includes making a determination as to what services are available at any potential re-routed server locations. Furthermore, any changes on the server side must match information available on the DNS, such that services started on a particular server are limited to those listed at the DNS.
The continued growth in demand for network sources for information access, data provision and other needs has presented challenges, including those discussed above, to the ability of previous approaches to meet user and consumer needs, and further to facilitate the modification and configuration of servers.